Today the people of Sierra Leone voted in a democratic election that passed without any major incidents. It was the third national contest since the country emerged from an 11-year civil war that ended in 2002.

Hundreds of volunteers slept overnight at polling stations and people began lining up to vote as early as 2:00 a.m.

“I’m doing this to help my country,” said Chernor Bah, one of those volunteers who, since he is just 19 years old, was voting for the first time in his life. “This is for development. It is for our prosperity.”

When we started the day at 6:30 a.m. in Freetown’s west, the woman at the very front of the line was Degba Sesay, 74 years old. “Today, we feel fine,” she said. “No violence.”

Here’s a selection of photographs from around the capital city.

More photos at my Flickr stream.